Stable fringe fabric and method of making same



c. D. RHODES 3,395,738

STABLE FRINGE FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Aug. 6, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 15, 1966 WEFTWLSE- WAEPWISE- Wmzpwse- I INVENTOR. CARL b. Enouz-s ATTORNEYS 1968 c. D. RHODES 3,395,738

STABLE FRINGE FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Filed Aug. 15, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 2O 7 f I B1 j 32 32 50 r 5 B 30 52 W E0 0 CARLfi oR: E Q JM ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,395,738 STABLE FRINGE FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Carl D. Rhodes, Leaksville, N.C., assignor to Fieldcrest Mills, Inc., Spray, N.C., a corporation of Delaware Field Aug. 15, 1966, Ser. No. 572,453 17 Claims. (Cl. 139385) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to fringes of the relatively narrow type adapted to be attached, as by stitching, to towels, bedspreads, draperies and the like, and is particularly concerned with a novel woven fringe fabric characterized by having substantial stability against shrinkage upon laundering.

Relatively narrow woven fringe fabrics have been known and used for many years attached to various types of fabrics to provide finished edges thereon while also imparting enhanced decorative effects thereto. However, the uses and applications of such fringe fabrics have been restricted due to the inherent instability of such fringe fabrics against shrinkage upon laundering. This instability problem is further aggravated in many instances by the irregularity and unpredictability of the shrinkability of various prior fringe fabrics, although of the same weave construction.

Accordingly, these prior fringe fabrics have not been successfully used with many woven fabrics, such as towels, particularly terry towels, and a wide variety of bedspreads, which have a low shrinkability upon laundering, due to the high relative shrinkage characteristics of the fringe fabric and the body fabric to which the fringe fabrics are attached. This high relative shrinkage imparts an undesirable reduction in the length of the corresponding edge portion of the body fabric to which the fringe fabric is secured, with an attendant gathered or drawstring effect along the line of connection of the fringe fabric thereto.

Therefore, these prior fringe fabrics have been limited in use to those few applications wherein the relative rigidity of the body fabric, such as in carpets, is sufficient to withstand and oppose the shrinkage of the fringe fabric upon laundering, and in other instances wherein the body fabric also has a high shrinkability upon laundering, and the relative shrinkage between the body fabric and the fringe fabric is very small. Also, there are certain instances wherein a substantial relative shrinkage between the body fabric and the fringe fabric is not entirely objectionable, and the prior fringe fabrics have been successfully used in those instances.

With the foregoing in mind, it is the primary object of this invention to provide a novel fringe fabric and method of making the same wherein a stability against shrinkage upon laundering of such a low percentage is provided that the fringe fabric can successfully be applied to a much wider variety of body fabrics, including towels and bedspreads, than has heretofore been the case.

This is achieved by use of a novel fringe fabric weave construction wherein the warp yarns are woven and positioned in straight-line condition throughout the length of 3,395,738 Patented Aug. 6, 1968 ice the fabric, it having been determined in prior art fringe fabric constructions that the sinuousity of the warp yarns and the manner of interweaving the same with the weft yarns were primarily responsible for the high lengthwise shrinkability and resulting instability of the fringe fabrics upon laundering.

More specifically, in order to produce a novel woven fringe fabric so that it has substantial stability against shrinkage upon repeated launderings, especially in its lengthwise; i.e., warpwise direction, the fringe fabric includes a leno weave body which is woven from a plurality of ground warps sufficiently tensioned during weaving to maintain them in straight condition, while picks of filling yarn are positioned against a common side of the straight ground warps and are bound thereto by undulated crossing warps maintained in a slack condition to avoid disturbing the straight condition of the ground warps, and while extending substantial portions of the picks of filling from one edge of the body to form a fringe thereon.

Each pick of filling yarn preferably is made from a greater number of strands of yarn than the number of strands in each of the ground and crossing warps so as to impart considerable fullness to the fringe. Also, the portion of each pick which is in the leno weave body i substantially straight to impart fillingwise stability to the leno weave body upon laundering. Each pick preferably is in the form of a double pick or loop so each pick comprises two legs interconnected by a bight remote from said one edge of the body, which bights may be severed if desired, and adjacent legs of adjacent pairs of picks are also interconnected by a selvage bight proximal to that edge of the body remote from the fringe to form a looped selvage thereon.

Another object of this invention is to provide a woven web fabric in combination with an attached elongate fringe fabric of the type described, wherein the web fabric has a shrinkability of no more than about 3% in the direction of its warp yarns and/or its weft yarns upon repeated launderings, with the body of the novel fringe fabric attached to an edge of the web fabric parallel to the direction of the 3% shrinkability of the web, and wherein the body of the fringe fabric has a shrinkability longitudinally thereof of no more than that of the web fabric upon repeated launderings so as to substantially avoid relative gathering or distortion between the web fabric and the fringe body.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objects will appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which- FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a terry towel to opposite ends of which lengths of the improved fringe fabric are connected;

FIGURE 2 is a schematic fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along line 22 in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of a bedspread showing a continuous length of the improved fringe fabric connected to one end edge and opposite side edges of the bedspread;

FIGURES 4 and 5 are respective front and back views of the fringe fabric independently of the woven web fabrics of FIGURES 1, 2 and 3;

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged schematic view of a portion of the fringe fabric, looking at the front face thereof with portions of the fringe broken away;

FIGURES 7 and 8 are respective weftwise and warpwise sectional views taken along lines 7-7 and 88 in FIGURE 6; and

FIGURE 9 is a view similar to FIGURE 6, looking at the back surface of the fringe fabric.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, FIGURES 1 and 3 show lengths of the improved fringe fabric, broacl' ly designated at 20, attached to edge portions of different types of woven web fabrics 21, 22 which are so woven or finished, as by resin treatment, that they normally will shrink no more than about 3%, upon repeated launderings, at least along the edge portions thereof to which the fringe fabric is attached. The fabric 21 of FIGURE 1 is embodied in a terry cloth towel and the fabric 22 in FIG- URE 3 is embodied in a bedspread. Bedspread 22 may be of a plain or fancy weave and may or may not be partially or entirely in the form of terry cloth. Lengths a, 20b of fringe fabric 20 are connected to opposite end edges of terry towel 21 in FIGURES 1 and 2, and interconnected lengths 20c, 20a, 20a of fringe fabric 20 are shown in FIGURE 3 connected to one end edge and two other edges of bedspread 22.

As is usual, terry towel 21 (FIGURE 2) is woven from base warps 23, filling yarns 24 and terry warps 25. Terry warps 25 may form terry loops on either or both faces of terry towel 21. As shown in the central portion of FIG- URE 2, each end portion of terry towel 21 may be folded upon itself, and the elongate, relatively narrow body of the corresponding fringe lengths 20a, 20b may be attached to corresponding edge portions of terry towel 21 by means of one or more rows of stitches. As shown, two rows of stitches 26 are provided in the central portion of FIG- URE 2 for attaching fringe fabric 20 to the corresponding end edge of terry towel 21. It should be noted that the warps of the fringe fabric 20 extend at right angles to the warps 23, 24 of towel 21.

As is well known, the yarns generally employed in weaving terry cloth are made from cellulosic or hydrophilic textile fibers, especially cotton, and fringes are generally formed on the ends of various terry towels by weaving a narrow, non-terry header at each end of the terry cloth body from the same warp yarns and the same type of filling yarns as are present in the terry cloth body, with fringe-forming lengths of warps extending from the outer or distal edges of the corresponding non-terry headers.

However, there are many advantages in the use of separately woven fringe fabrics on the ends of towels in that the types, textures, bulk and quantity of yarns employed in separately weaving a fringe fabric may differ substantially from the yarns of the terry towel, the fringe fabric may be dyed any desired color regardless of the color of the terry towel, and the fringe may be severed or in the form of loops, as desired.

As woven, the terry cloth bodies and non-terry end portions of terry towels normally have a shrinkability of no more than about 2% in the fillingwise direction upon repeated launderings. Many towels, as woven, will not shrink at all in the fillingwise direction upon laundering. However, the known prior art types of separately woven fringe fabrics shrink up to 15% or more upon laundering.

It can be appreciated therefore that the use of the prior art types of separately woven fringe fabrics on the ends of towels has resulted in a reduction in the width of the towels at the ends thereof relative to the width of the terry cloth bodies and has produced an undesirable distortion and gathering of the terry cloth bodies along the end edge portions thereof to which lengths of the prior art types of fringe fabrics were attached.

In order to avoid such distortion and gathering of terry towels, or other web fabrics having relatively low shrinkability upon laundering, along the edge portions thereof to which separately woven fringe fabrics are attached, the novel woven fringe fabric 20 of the present invention is so constructed that it has substantial warpwise stability against shrinkage upon laundering, even though the fringe fabric 20 may be made from cellulosic or hydrophilic yarns. Accordingly, fringe fabric 20 comprises an elongate leno weave body B made up of a plurality of straight ground warps 30 which are highly tensioned during weaving to maintain them in straight condition. A series of picksof filling yarn 31 is positioned against a common side of all the straight ground warps 30, and the picks of filling yarn are bound to the ground warps 30 by undulat ing crossing warps 32 which are maintained in a slack condition during weaving to avoid disturbing the straight condition of the ground warps 30. Substantial portions of the picks of filling yarnextend outwardly from one longitudinal side edge of body B to form a fringe F thereon.

With reference to FIGURES 4, 6 and 8 in particular, it will be noted that the picks of filling yarn 31 are positioned above and against the straight ground warps 30. Each of the crossing warps 32, which are also known as doup warps or leno warps, extends over alternate picks of filling yarn 31 at one side of each corresponding ground warp 30 and over intervening picks of filling yarn at the opposite side of each corresponding ground warp. Also, each crossing warp 32 extends beneath the corresponding ground warp between each adjacent pair of picks of filling yarn, such that the portions of the picks of filling yarn 31 bound to the ground warps 30 also are straight and thereby lend weftwise stability to the body B of fringe fabric 20.

It should be noted that each pick of filling yarn 31 is formed of a greater number of strands than the number of strands in each warp 30, 32, there being at least twice as many strands in each pick as there are in each ground warp. Preferably, each ground warp and each crossing warp 30, 32 includes two parallel strands, and each pick is formed of about 8 to 12 strands of yarn to impart considerable fullness to the fringe F. The outwardly projecting portion of each pick of filling yarn projects from the body B a distance several times greater than the width of the relatively narrow body.

The filling yarn of which picks 31 are formed preferably is continuous throughout at least a major portion of the length of the body B with each pick being in the form of a loop having two legs a, b which form a bight 0 remote from body B. Also, adjacent legs of adjacent picks of filling yarn 31 are interconnected by a selvage bight d proximal to the edge of body B remote from fringe F. The selvage bights a collectively define a looped selvage on the corresponding longitudinal, warpwise extending edge of leno weave body B.

It is thus seen that, although successive picks 31 are crowded together during weaving, the ground warps 30 and the portions of the picks 31 in leno weave body B remain in straight condition and thus are not as susceptible to shrinkage upon laundering as would be the case if the fabric were woven with both the ground warps and the crossing warps being under the sametension and with both types of warps extending above and beneath the successive picks of filling yarn in alternation with each other. The appearance of the fringe fabric is enhanced by spacing adjacent warps a substantial distance apart from each other, thus providing a ribbed effect on one face of the leno weave body B as best shown in FIGURE 5. The spacing apart of the warps 30 is believed to contribute to the stability of the leno weave body, since the spaces between adjacent ground warps provide more room for the swelling of the picks of filling yarn 31, which are of substantially greater bulk or mass than the ground and crossing warps, without imparting substantial shrinkage to the leno weave body B upon laundering.

Also, since the ground warps 30 are positioned adjacent a common side of the picks of filling yarn 31 and are thus positioned in straight condition, this minimizes longitudinal or warpwise shrinkage of the leno weave body B. The straight condition of the ground warps and picks of filling also contributes to the stability of the fabric against warpwise and weftwise stretch in normal handling, such as during the sewing of the fringe fabric 20 to edge portions of web fabrics, such as are shown in FIGURES 1 and 3. It is apparent that, due to the crossing warps being purposely maintained slack during weaving of the fringe fabric 20, they have no appreciable effect on the shrinkability of the fringe fabric upon laundering, since the slack condition of the crossing warps permits their readily swelling without pulling in or reducing the length of the fringe fabric.

In an unlimiting example of a typical fringe fabric made according to the present invention, each ground warp was made up of two strands of No. cotton yarn, each crossing warp 32 was also made up of two strands of No. 10 cotton yarn, and the yarn used in forming the picks 31 was made up of three ends, each including two strands of No. 10 cotton yarn. Thus, since there are two legs of filling yarn in each pick 31, each pick included 12 strands of No. 10 cotton yarn, and each ground warp and crossing warp included two strands of No. 10 cotton yarn. In another unlimiting example, the ground and crossing warps each included two ends of No. 10 cotton yarn as in the previous example, but each pick of filling was made up of two ends of No. 4 /2 cotton yarn with two strands in each end, or with a total of eight strands of No. 4 /2 cotton yarn being employed in forming each pick of filling yarn 31.

The improved fringe fabric of the present invention may be woven on a loom of the narrow ware type which inserts picks of filling by means of a reciprocating needle with the ground warps maintained in a lowered position and under higher than normal tension throughout the weaving operation, and utilizing doup heddles or needles through which the crossing warps 31 extend in slack condition. Thus, each pick of filling yarn would be inserted on top of the highly tensioned ground warps and the doup heddles or needles simply loop the crossing warps beneath the respective ground warps following the insertion of each double pick of filling yarn and then raise the crossing warps so the next succeeding double pick is inserted therebeneath and above all the ground warps 30. The fringe fabric 20 may be woven on various types of looms and, since the construction and operation of looms is well known, an illustration and further description thereof is deemed unnecessary.

Although the two legs a, b of each pick of filling yarn 31 are shown interconnected by a bight c, as is preferred, it is apparent that the bight 0 may be severed, if desired.

Fringe fabric constructed according to the instant invention has a shrinkability in the warpwise or longitudinal direction of no more than about 2% when subjected to repeated launderings, so that when it is connected to the edge portions of web fabrics which also have a shrinkability, when subjected to repeated launderings, of no more than about 2% or 3% along the corresponding edge portions thereof, the occurrence of any noticeable relative distortion or relative gathering between the improved fringe fabric 20 and the edge portions of the web fabric to which it is connected is minimized.

The term laundering is used herein in the normal sense to include washing and then drying the fabric, wherein during the drying, some agitation of the fabric occurs to facilitate the drying.

It is thus seen that I have provided an improved fringe fabric and method of making the same in which the fringe body is characterized by having substantial warpwise and weftwise stability against shrinkage upon laundering and such that the fringe fabric normally will shrink no more than about 2% in the warpwise direction upon repeated launderings, thereby permitting the fringe fabric to be connected to other fabrics such as towels, bedspreads, and the like having comparable shrinkability to minimize problems of gathering and distortion upon laundering.

Although the novel fringe fabric and method of making the same have been described with reference to yarns of cellulosic fibers, it is well known that fabrics formed of yarns of synthetic fibers or blends thereof with cellulosic fibers also present stability problems. Therefore, the instant invention is not to be restricted to fringe fabrics formed of cellulosic yarns, but to also include fringe fabrics formed of synthetic yarns or wherein the yarns are blends of synthetic and cellulosic fibers.

In the drawings and specification there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention and, although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined in the claims.

I claim:

1. A woven fringe fabric characterized by having substantial warpwise stability against shrinkage upon laundering, said fringe fabric comprising a leno weave body formed of a plurality of straight ground warps and undulating crossing warps with picks of filling yarn positioned against a common side of said ground warps and bound to the ground warps by the crossing warps, and said picks of filling yarn including portions projecting outwardly from one edge of said body to form a fringe thereon.

2. A fringe fabric according to claim 1, wherein each pick of filling yarn is in the form of a loop having two legs formed with an interconnecting fringe bight at their free end portions remote from said one edge of said body.

3. A fringe fabric according to claim 2, wherein adjacent legs of adjacent pairs of picks of filling yarn are formed with an interconnecting selvage bight proximal to the other edge of said body remote from said one edge, and wherein said selvage bights form collectively a looped selvage'on said other edge of said body.

4. A fringe fabric according to claim 1, wherein there is one of said crossing warps for each of said ground warps and wherein said picks of filling yarn are positioned above and against said straight ground warps, and wherein each of said crossing warps extends over alternate picks of filling yarn at one side of a corresponding ground warp and extends over intervening picks of filling yarn at the opposite side of the corresponding ground warp and is crossed under the corresponding ground warp between each adjacent pair of picks of filling yarn, such that said picks of filling yarn also are straight in said body and thereby lend we-ftwise stability to the body of the fabric.

5. A fringe fabric according to claim 4, in which each of said ground warps is formed of at least one strand of twisted cotton yarn of given count and each pick is formed of a substantial plurality of strands of twisted cotton yarn of about the same count per strand as said given count, there being at least twice as many of said strands in each pick as there is in each ground warp.

6. A fringe fabric according to claim 4, in which the filling yarn of said picks is continuous throughout at least a major portion of the length of the fabric with each pick being in the form of a loop having two legs forming a bight interconnecting the legs of said outwardly projecting portions of the picks and with adjacent legs of adjacent pairs of picks of filling yarn interconnected by a selvage bight proximal to that other edge of said body remote from said one edge, and said selvage bights collectively defining a looped selvage on said other edge.

7. A fringe fabric according to claim 1, in which each outwardly projecting portion of each pick of filling yarn projects from the body a distance several times greater than the width of the body and wherein each pick is formed of from about 8 to 12 strands of yarn to impart considerable fullness to the fringe.

8. A fringe fabric according to claim 7, wherein each crossing warp is about the same count as each ground warp, and adjacent ground warps are spaced from each other to provide a ribbed appearance to one face of the body.

9. A fringe fabric according to claim 1, wherein said leno weave body has a shrinkability in the warpwise direction no greater than about 2% upon repeated launder.-

rngs.

10. The combination of a woven textile web fabric of warp and filling yarns, and wherein said web fabric has a shrinkability of no more than about 3% in at least one yarn direction upon repeated launderings, with an elongate fringe fabric attached to and extending along at least one edge of said web fabric in said one yarn direction, said fringe fabric comprising a leno weave fringe body formed of a plurality of straight ground warps extending longitudinally of said fringe fabric with picks of filling yarn positioned against a common side of said ground warps, undulating crossing warps extending longitudinally of said fringe fabric and binding said picks of filling yarn to said ground warps, said picks of filling yarn including portions projecting outwardly from one longitudinal edge of said fringe body to form a fringe thereon, and said fringe body having a shrinkability longitudinally thereof no greater than that of said web fabric upon repeated launderings so as to substantially avoid distortion and relative gathering between said web fabric and said fringe body.

11. The combination as claimed in claim 10, wherein said web fabric is a terry towel having a shrinkability of no more than 2% in the fillingwise direction, and wherein said fringe body also has a shrinkability of no more than 2% longitudinally thereof and is attached to said towel with its warps extending at right angles to the warps of said towel.

12. The combination as claimed in claim 11, wherein said fringe fabric is attached throughout its length to said towel by at least one row of stitches.

13. The combination as claimed in claim 10, in which said web fabric is adaptable for use as a bedspread and wherein said fringe fabric is alsO connected to and extends along two other edges of said web fabric.

14. A method of making a woven fringe fabric having substantial warpwise stability against shrinkage upon landering, said method comprising weaving a leno body from a plurality of ground warps highly tensioned to maintain the ground warps in straight condition, while positioning picks of filling yarn against a common side of said straight ground warps and binding the picks of filling yarn to the ground wraps by undulating crossing warps while maintaining the crossing warps in a slack condition to avoid disturbing the straight condition of the ground warps, and while extending substantially portions of said picks of filling yarn from one side edge of said body to form a fringe.

15. A method according to claim 14, in which the extending of said fringe portions of said picks of filling yarn includes forming a loop of each pick with two parallel legs and with an interconnecting fringe bight at the ends of the legs remote from said body.

16. A method according to claim 15, which includes forming a selvage bight interconnecting adjacent legs of' each adjacent pair of picks of filling yarn proximal to the other side edge of said body remote from said one side edge so that said selvage bights form collectively a looped selvage on said other side edge of said body.

17. A method according to claim 14, wherein said picks of filling yarn are positioned above and against said straight ground warps and wherein the weaving of said body includes extending each of said crossing warps over alternate picks of filling yarn at one side of a corresponding ground warp and over intervening picks of filling yarn at the opposite side of the corresponding ground warp, and crossing each crossing warp beneath the coresponding ground warp and between each adjacent pair of picks of filling yarn, such that the portions of said picks of filling yarn bound to the ground warps also are straight and thereby lend weftwise stability to the body of the fabric.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 124,051 2/1872 Gillespie 139385 431,160 7/1890 Bellis 112409 494,669 4/1893 Clement 139419 553,707 1/1896 Feder 139385 657,172 9/1900 Mann et al. 139385 2,212,378 8/1940 Randall 139419 X 2,222,944 11/1940 GersOn 1124O9 3,186,442 6/1965 Gale 139118 3,221,736 12/1965 Heitzmann 139419 X MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

J. KEE CHI, Assistant Examiner. 

